Northern Michigan University, located in Marquette, Michigan, is a dynamic four-year, public, comprehensive university that has grown its reputation based on its award-winning leadership programs, cutting-edge technology initiatives and nationally recognized academic programs. Northern has a population of about 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students.

Ask a few Northern students what drew them to our university and you will get a variety of answers. That's because there is no single thing that make students want to go to Northern; it is ALL the things that we do here. Northern is big enough to offer a wide variety of academic programs but is also small enough that every time you walk across campus, you'll probably wave "hi" to someone you know.

Curiosity is the raw ingredient of knowledge. It causes us to ask questions, to seek answers, to learn. At Northern Michigan University, natural curiosity and intellectual challenge meet in stimulating classes grounded in the liberal arts. So wherever your curiosity leads you, you can count on the support you need to take the next step, ask the next question, propose the next hypothesis.

The mission of the Northern Michigan University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, Recreational Sports and the United States Olympic Training Site is to create an environment that promotes academic excellence, interpersonal growth and social development; embraces diversity; teaches lifetime leisure skills; fosters spirit and tradition; and builds a lifelong connection to NMU.

Yes, you'll attend your classes, but what else will you be doing as a student at Northern? There's so much stuff to choose from. There's a student organization or club – almost 300 at last count-- for just about every interest. If you're into investigating the paranormal, anime or improv comedy, there's a group. Cheer on your fellow Wildcats at a hockey game or volleyball match. Join a competitive club sport or an intramural team. The sky is the limit.

UP 200 Volunteers

Dr. Cauley Braves Sub-Zero for UP 200 Volunteering

Long after dark, from deep in the woods, a headlamp appears, and red lights blink in ghostly clouds of breath surrounding lean, panting dogs. Dr. Mike Cauley waits by the fire with his stopwatch along a remote, snow-covered highway. The dogs pull sled and driver over a bank of snow, cross the silent road, and disappear again into the night.

Cauley, who has taught in the Engineering Technology for the last 42 years, has volunteered at an ice-cold crossing station for about 10 of the 20 years that the UP 200 dog sled race has taken place.

This year, Cauley arrived with other volunteers before dark to set up the station at the Rapid River Truck Trail road crossing. They gathered firewood and built pillars out of blocks of snow. They set up lanterns which, in the middle of the night, would help to guide the dog sled teams as they followed the path.

“We do something unique each time,” Cauley says. “One year, we made an igloo.”

As each team passed, he noted the mushers’ bib numbers and recorded their times, and then used a ham radio to report the information to the UP 200 headquarters in Marquette so they could be sure that all teams were safe and accounted for. When cars approached, Cauley stopped them to allow the teams to pass safely.

“You see the breathing hanging above the dogs on the trail,” Cauley says. “It’s an eerie feeling, it’s neat. They cut across, and go up and over.”

Several years ago at the M95 crossing station, he says, a team of dogs came up and over the snow bank, and there was no musher—only an empty sled. Cauley and another volunteer stopped the dogs, which were friendly.

“Someone had a snowmobile, so they went off and looked for a mile or two,” Cauley says. “About fifteen minutes later, a woman came walking by. She had been tossed off.”

Fortunately, the woman wasn’t hurt, and she was able to continue the race.

This year, the crossing was uneventful, which was a good thing. Moreover, the weather cooperated. While it was 14 below last year, this year “it wasn’t quite so cold—only two below,” he says.

This year, Cauley was joined by former faculty members Carol Hicks and Jeff Hoffman (along with his son, Slava Hoffman), Ron Raisanen, and Pete Kotila, a former NMU student.